Video Transcript: Let’s Get Growing!
Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started in March, I’ve been sending you my weekly “Coronavirus Curveball Tip of the Week” videos each Monday, sharing an idea or practice to help you navigate through these challenging times. As we have been moving into a phase where it seems like we will be in this mode for an extended period of time, I have been working with many of you to see this as a time of opportunity and possibility, not of disappointment and resignation.
So I’ve decided to formalize that approach in these weekly video tips and shift to a “Get Growing” focus, instead of a “managing Covid response focus – taking charge of your plans as you head into the Q4 of this year and then 2021. I want you to see this time as an enabler, not a liability or a time to “pause”, waiting for certainty to return.
So, this week, I’d like to talk about budget cuts that I’m hearing from many of you.
No one likes being faced with budget cuts, particularly during these times when we are being asked to keep or in some cases increase our levels of productivity and contributions – often with less resource – AND surrounded by the ongoing uncertainty of where things will be in 6-12 months. It is clearly an uneasy, unsettling feeling.
It would be easy to default to our natural reaction when faced with an unexpected or difficult situation – to get stuck, lamenting about how unfair it all is. Then resort to firefighting mode which leads you right back to being on autopilot, reacting, falling back on what seems easy and reasonable, what you’ve done in the past.
This is exactly the opposite of what you need to be doing now…. which is asking questions like:
- What do we need – really need to achieve our goals under these conditions?
- What do we have at our disposal to get there? Skills, experience, assets from your team or elsewhere in the organization? Don’t feel like you need to tackle this alone
- How can I look at this as an opportunity for my team to do learn & grow, to use their strengths in a different way, to build capacity for the future (we discussed this in last week’s “TIP”)?
It’s important for you to see this from a possibilities mindset, to build capacity, to help your team get ahead of the curve….to normalize the unexpected, because this is surely not the last time you will be asked to do more with less.
That’s my “Get Growing” tip of the week. I’ll see you next Monday…in the meantime, think about how this might apply to budget or resource issue you are facing…and let me know if you want to have a quick call. Let’s find the possibility in this situation together.
Take care of yourself!